Jain Journal 1997 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 10

MUKHERJEE : THE KALAKACHARYA KATHANAKA
On the other hand, there are certain factors which suggest high antiquity for at least some portions of the Kalaka story. The name Kalaka is a celebrated one in Jaina hagiology, It may be pointed out, without entering into the question of plurality of Kalakas,27 that all relevant texts indicate that a Jaina monk of that name was alive in the year 453 of the Vira Era.28 In a stanza appended to three manuscripts of Dhrmaprabhasuri's version it is stated that in the same year Kalaka "took (gahiya) Sarasvati." This evidence, even though appearing in a comparatively late version,30 may be accepted on the ground of its not being contradicted by any other source at least as a working hypothesis. The Kalaka associated with Sarasvati should be the same as the brother of the Sarasvati of our story. In fact, Merutunga, though another late authority,31 explicitly states that in the year 453 after Vira's nirvana. Kālikācharya (i.e'Kalakacharya), the uprooter of Gardabhilla, was honoured with the title of Suri,32 hence it is possible that our Kalika lived in 452 of the Vira Era. Although there is a controversy about the epoch of this era, no existing theory would place the year 453 of that reckoning after the 1st century B.C.33 or much before it.
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Traditional chronolgy, however, should never be accepted as an independent evidence. Hence the testimony of Ptolemy confirming a part of our story is much more important for our purpose. It states
The word Sind may well be a corruption of the name Sindhu (i.e. Shentu). Hind within which Ibn Khurdadba includes lands lying to the east of the Indus, may also denote in the Chach-nama at least some of the same territory. (Elliot and Dowson, op cit., pp. 136 and 138).
27. N. Brown thinks that the Jaina traditions testity to the existence of the three Kalakas-one dying in the year 376 of the Vira Era. the second flourishing (perhaps becoming a Suri) in the year 453 of that era, and the third living in the year 933 of the same reckoning (Brown op. cit., p 7). U.P. Shah, on the other hand, supports the existence of only one Kalaka living in the 1st century B.C.
28. Brown, op cit., p. 6.
29. Ibid.
30. The earliest known manuscript of the version of Dharmprabhasuri is dated in samvat 1502. (Ibid. p. 93).
31. Merutunga composed the Prabandhacintamani in samvat 1367. (Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, os. vol. IX. p. 147). 32. Ibid. p. 148.
33. For different theories about the epoch of the Vira Era, see H. C. Ray Choudhuri, Political History of Ancient India (5th edition) p. 213, n. 3. See also JBBRAS, os, vol. IX. p. 147.